PORTER’S JOURNAL. 35 
rent and current from the Brazil coast, and flowing off to the 
west. 
Vancouver has not given us any data from which we may 
draw any just conclusions ; he observes, “ From the Isle of St. 
Antonio, as far south as Cape St. Augustine, the currents are very 
irregular, and in the lat. of 6° north there is a strong ripple. 
Those currents, notwithstanding the general opinion, do not ap¬ 
pear to have any irregularity, for it appeared that we were set in 
a different direction from the one we expected from its effects on 
us the preceding day; and those that we most experienced had 
a southerly direction, and more frequently to the S.E. than to, 
the S.W” 
The ripple of which Vancouver makes mention, I also disco¬ 
vered, and in the same latitude, with a very high and irregular 
swell from the northward. The ripple I attributed entirely to 
the meeting of the currents, and perhaps the swell may be owing 
in some measure to the same cause, though I rather think it 
owing to banks formed in that neighbourhood by the deposit of 
matter brought from the coast of Brazils. 
All navigators, in crossing between the Cape de Verds and the 
coast of Brazils, have remarked the irregularities of the currents, 
but none have heretofore attempted to account for them ; and 1 
should not have hazarded an opinion on this subject, were I not 
firmly of the belief that the trade winds are the great cause of 
currents in the north and south Atlantic oceans. 
On the 11th crossed the equator in the long, of 30° west. 
Since the 9th we have had (particularly at night) squally weather, 
with heavy showers of rain ; this may be accounted for by the 
absence of the sun’s rays, but more satisfactorily by the vapours 
being condensed by the cool S.E. trades. 
On the 12th, about 2, P. M., discovered a sail to windward, 
which bore the appearance of a British brig of war; made all 
sail in chace of her, and at 6 she displayed a signal. With a view 
of decoying her down to me, I displayed such British signals as I 
became possessed of during my last cruize, but without effect. 
At sundown she hoisted British colours, and after dark made her 
night signals. At 9 we were within musket shot, and bein^ cU* 
